Amazon+Whole Foods: A new player in the industry

With more than 300 million active customers, 380,000 employees, and sales that exceeded 135 billion USD (2016), Amazon announces on June 16th the company’s intention to acquire Whole Foods for 13.7 billion USD. Headquartered in Austin (Texas), Whole Foods leads the organic and healthy food retail market. It has annual sales of over 16 billion USD and more than 477 stores across the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom. This acquisition launches the e-commerce giant into the world of brick & mortar grocery stores and calls into question everything the gurus of the food-chain business strategy had predicted. How to react? How would the industry change?